Ignition means for a cooking apparatus or the like



AREAS, 1969 F. RIEHL 3361353 IGNITIONMEANS Fon Ay c oQKING APPARATUS QR THE LIKE Filed Sept. 2.5,v 1967 i/W/ E 67 mvENT FRED me FIG.2 @Y I 6, w MMM HIS ,AIIQEHIS United Patent O;

3,461,853 IGNITION MEANS FOR A COOKING APPARATUS OR THE LIKE Fred Riehl, Greensburg, Pa., assignor to Robertshaw Controls Company, Richmond, Va., a corporation of Delaware Filed Sept. 25, 1967, Ser. No. 670,310 Int. Cl. F24c 3/10; F23g 9/00, 3/00 U.S. Cl. 126-39 16 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for effecting automatic igniting of pilot burner means of a cooking apparatus or the like each time the oven door thereof is opened and closed to insure that not only will the pilot burner means be lit, but also to provide a selective actuation of the ignition means when unlit pilot burner means are found, the movement of the oven door altering the stresses in piezoelectric crystal means that will cause ignition sparking at the pilot burner means.

This invention relates to improved ignition means for a cooking apparatus or the like as Well as to an improved method for igniting burner means of such a cooking apparatus or the like.

It is well known that many cooking apparatus of the fuel burning variety have individual pilot burner means for each main burner thereof whether the main burner is disposed in the oven or on the top of the cooking apparatus, the pilot burners being continuously burning pilot burners and when adversely put out because of air currents or the like, the same must be re-ignited by the housewife or the like utilizing matches and the like.

However, according to the teachings of this invention, ignition means are provided for such pilot burner means wherein the housewife or the like can selectively initiate the actuation of the ignition means completely remote from the pilot burner means by merely opening and closing the oven door to ignite the pilot burner means in a simple and effective manner. Also, since the oven door is normally moved between its opened and closed positions many times during cooking operations, such movement of the oven door substantially insures that all pilot burners will be lit even though the housewife or the like is not aware that one or more of the pilot burners had been extinguished for some reason.

In particular, the ignition means of this invention includes piezoelectric crystal means that when actuated by the housewife or the like opening and closing the oven door will have the stresses therein altered in such a manner that the same will cause sparking at the pilot burner means to ignite the same.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved ignition means for a cooking apparatus or the like, the ignition means of this invention having one or more of the novel features set forth above or hereinafter shown or described.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved method for igniting pilot burner means of a cooking apparatus or the like.

Other objects, uses and advantages of this invention are apparent from a reading of this description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings forming a part thereof and wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective View of a cooking apparatus utilizing the ignition means of this invention.

FIGURE 2 is a schematic view illustrating the ignition system for the cooking apparatus of FIGURE 1.

While the various features of this invention are herein- 3,461,853 Patented Aug. 19, 1969 after described and illustrated as being particularly adaptable for providing ignition means for a cooking apparatus, it is to be understood that the various features of this invention can be utilized singly or in any combination thereof to provide ignition means for other apparatus as desired.

Therefore, this invention is not to be limited to only the embodiment illustrated in the drawings, because the drawings are merely utilized to illustrate one of the wide variety of uses of this invention.

Referring now to FIGURE 1, a cooking apparatus is generally indicated by the reference numeral 10 and has an oven chamber 11 provided with a broil burner 12 and a bake burner 13 illustrated in FIGURE 1 in substantially rectangular form while being illustrated in FIG- URE 2 as being in tubular form. The oven chamber 11 is opened and closed by a conventional door means 14.

The cooking apparatus 10 includes a plurality of top burner means 15, 16, 17 and 18, with only the top burner means 15 and 16 being illustrated schematically in FIG- URE 2.

Individual pilot burner means are provided for the main burners of the cooking apparatus 10 and the broil pilot burner is generally indicated by the reference numeral 19, the bake pilot burner by the reference numeral 20 and the top pilot burners are generally indicated by the reference numerals 21, 22, 23 and 24 for the respective top burners 15, 16, 17 and 18. The pilot burners 19', 20, 21 and 22 are illustrated schematically in FIGURE 2 and are so constructed and arranged that the same are adapted to ignite fuel issuing from the respective main burner means 12, 13, 15 and 16 as long as the respective pilot burners are burning.

However, should one or more of the pilot burners of the cooking apparatus 10 be extinguished for any reason, spark igniting means of this invention is provided for the apparatus 10 and is generally indicated by the reference numeral 25 4in FIGURES l and 2 and will now be described.

The spark igniting means 25 comprises a support or frame member 26 suitably mounted to the frame structure 27 of the cooking apparatus 10 so that movement of the oven door 14 in an opening or closing manner adjacent its fully closed position will automatically actuate the spark igniting means in a manner hereinafter described.

The support frame 26 has one or more piezoelectric crystal elements carried therein between the opposed ends 30 and 31 thereof with such crystal means being disposed in a recess or cutout 32 of the support frame 26. In the embodiment of the igniter means 25 illustrated in FIGURE 2, two such piezoelectric crystal elements 33 and 34 are being utilized.

The crystal elements 33 and 34 are disposed in longitudinal stacked and aligned relation with the element 33 having electrical terminal means 35 and 36at the opposed ends thereof and the crystal element 34 having electrical terminal means 37 and 38 at the opposed ends thereof. An electrical insulator 39 is disposed between the terminal means 36 and 37 of the crystal elements 33 and 34 to effectively electrically insulate the elements 33 and 34 from each other While electrical insulating means 40 and 41 respectively electrically insulate the other ends of the crystal elements 33 and 34 from the support frame 26 whereby the crystal elements 33 and 34 are not only electrically insulated from each other, but are also electrically insulated from the support frame 26 and, thus, from the frame means 27 of cooking apparatus 10. If desired, ceramic pressure pads or elements 42 and 43 can be respectively disposed between the insulators 40 and 41 and the respective terminal means 35 and 38 as illustrated.

A rocker arm 44 is pivotally or rotatably carried by the support frame 26 and is adapted to rotate relative thereto about a transversely movable axis of rotation generally indicated by the reference numeral 45, the rocker arm 44 carrying a cam member 46 at the rotatably mounted end 47 thereof to be disposed between the insulator 40 and a at surface 48 of the support frame 26 at the end 30 thereof to also rotate in unison the rocker arm 44 about the movable axis 45. The cam member 46 has a flat surface 49 cooperating with the at surface 48 of the support frame 26 and a true, partial circular surface 5t) cooperating with an adjacent flat surface 51 of the insulator 40 whereby when the cam member 46 is disposed in the position illustrated in FIGURE 2, the elements 40, 42, 33, 39, 34, 43 and 41 are disposed in stacked relation between the opposed ends 30 and 31 of the support frame 26 and will not alter the stresses in the crystal elements 33 and 34 to generate a potential difference at the respective terminal means 35, 36 and 37, 38 until the cam element 46 is rotated about the axis 45 to either axially squeeze the elements 33 and 34 between the opposed ends thereof or relieve such squeezing action.

The rocker arm 44 is operatively interconnected to the oven door 14 or its hinge means 14A in any suitable manner so that movement of the oven door from its fully closed position to either its fully opened position as illustrated or to some predetermined partially opened position will rock the arm 44 in a clockwise direction in FIG- URE 2 to no more than its maximum amount of clockwise travel to actuate the spark igniting means 25 in a manner hereinafter described without adversely affecting the spark igniting means 25 as only a relatively small amount of rocking movement of the rocker arm 44 is required. Conversely, the closing of the oven door 14 from either its fully opened position or the predetermined partially opened position to its fully closed position will rock the rocker arm 44 in a counterclockwise direction in FIG- URE 2 back to the position illustrated in FIGURE 2 to again actuate the spark ignition means 25.

In particular, when the oven door 14 is moved relative to the apparatus in the above manner, the cam element 46 will rotate about its axis 45 in a clockwise direction so that the corner 52, formed by the juncture of the fiat surface 49 thereof and the circular surface 50 thereof, will bear against the flat surface 48 of the support frame 26 and cause the axis 45 to move downwardly and to the left in FIGURE 2 to increase the effective length of the cam member 46 between the surface 48 of the support frame 26 and the surface 51 of the insulator 40 to impose a substantially longtiudinal compressive and squeezing action on the elements 33 and 34 between the ends 30 and 31 of the support frame 26 so that the stresses in the crystals 33 and 34 are sufficiently altered to cause the same to create a potential difference at the respective pairs of terminals 35, 36 and 37, 38 to be utilized in a manner hereinafter described. When such compression or squeezing action on the crystal means 33 and 34 is subsequently relieved by the operator closing the oven door 14, the cam member 46 will rock back to the position illustrated in FIGURE 2 to effectively decrease the effective cam length of the cam member 46 between the surfaces 43 and 51 to thereby again alter the stresses in the crystal elements 33 and 34 as the same longitudinally expand from their previous squeezed condition to also generate a potential difference at the respective pairs of terminals 35, 36 and 37, 38.

During such rotation of the cam element 46, the stack of elements 40, 42, 33, 39, 34, 43 and 41 tends to rock as a unit to the left as the cam element 46 is rotated in a clockwise direction and tends to rock to the right when the cam element 46 is rotated in a counterclockwise direction back to the position illustrated in FIGURE 2 whereby the insulator 41 can be provided with an arcuate surface 53 that bears against a at surface 54 of the support frame 26 to permit such rocking of the stack of elements between the opposed ends 3) and 31 of the support frame 26.

A first pair of electrodes 55 and 56 are mounted to the frame means 27 of the apparatus 10 adjacent the respective pilot burners 21 and 22 and in spaced relation from the pilot burners 21 and 22 so as to define spark gaps 57 and 53 adjacent the fuel outlet means 59 and 60 of the pilot burners 21 and 22. The electrodes 55 and 56 are electrically insulated from the frame means 27 of the apparatus 1t) and are electrically interconnected to the terminals 36 and 35 by suitable leads 61 and 62.

Similarly, another pair of electrodes 63 and 64 are carried by the apparatus 15 and are disposed in spaced relation from the pilot burners 19 and 2t) to define spark gaps 65 and 66 adjacent the fuel outlet ends 67 and 68 of the respective pilot burner means 19 and 20; The electrodes 63 and 64 are also electrically insulated from the frame means 27 of the apparatus 10 and are respectively interconnected to the terminal means 38 and 37 by leads 69 and 70.

The pilot burner means 1, 22, 19 and 20 are electrically conductive and are, in effect, connected to a ground potential by being electrically interconnected to the frame means 27 of the apparatus 10` and such ground potential of the pilot burners is generally indicated by the reference numerals 71 and 72 in FIGURE 2, the frame means 27 of the apparatus 16` being effectively grounded through interconnection thereof to the gas supply lines and the like and also by conventional grounding means.

In this manner, it can be seen that the pilot burner means 21 and 22 respectively provide ground electrodes cooperating with the electrodes 55 and 56 to deline the spark gaps 57 and 58. Similarly, the pilot burners 19 and 20 provide ground electrodes for cooperating with the electrodes 63 and 64 to provide the spark gaps 65 and 66.

The operation of the igniting means 25 for the apparatus 10 will now be described.

When the housewife or the like notices that one of the burner means 12, 13, 15, 16, 17 or 18 does not ignite when she turns on one of the main selector knobs 73 on the control panel 29 of the apparatus 10, or when she actually notices that one or more of the pilot burner means 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 are not burning, she can merely open and close the oven door 14 to effect rocking of the cam member 46 of the igniter means 25 whereby the stresses in each crystal element 33 and 34 will be altered in the manner previously described so that one potential will be created at the electrodes 55 and 63 and an equal and opposite potential will be created at the electrodes 56 and 64. When the differences in potential between the electrodes 55, 56, 63 and 64 and their respective grounded electrodes 21, 22, 19 and 20 reaches a particular magnitude, electrical arcing will be created across the spark gaps 57, 58, 65 and 66 in substantially a simultaneous manner whereby such electrical sparking will ignite the fuel issuing from any unlit pilot burner means 21, 22, 19 or 20.

Continued opening movement of the oven door 14 to effect squeezing action on the ele-ments 33 and 34 will produce the above-described sparking one or more times depending upon the amount of clockwise rocking of the arm 44 in FIGURE 2. Also, subsequent closing of the oven door 14 will also alter the stresses in the crystals 33 and 34 to effect sparking at the spark gaps 57, 58, 65 and 66 on the return of the oven door 14 to its fully closed position.

While it is believed that merely one opening and closing actuation of the oven door 14 will effectively light any unlit pilot burner means 19-22, a mere repetitive opening and closing of the oven door 14 by the housewife or the like will more than assure that any unlit pilot burner means 19-22 will be effectively lit by the sparking created by the crystal means 33 and 34.

Also, it can be seen that above actuation of the spark ignition means 2S will take place during the opening and closing of the oven door 14 during normal cooking operations to assure the lighting of any yunlit pilot burners even though the housewife or the like is completely unaware that one or more of the pilot burners had been extinguished for some reason.

Therefore, it can be seen that by arranging the crystal means 33 and 34 in the manner previously described, each crystal means 33 or 34 is adapted to effectively ignite two or more pilot burner means so that a relatively inexpensive ignition means can be provided for the apparatus 10.

While the igniter means 25 illustrated in FIGURE 2 has the crystal element 34 being utilized to ignite the oven pilot burner means 19 and 20 and the crystal element 33 to ignite only the pilot burner means 21 and 22 of the top burner means 1S and 16, it is to be understood that a third crystal element can be disposed in a stacked relation in a manner similar to that illustrated in the drawings to effect sparking at the pilot burner means 23 and 24 of the other top burners 17 and 18.

However, it is also to be realized that the pilot burner means 21 and 22 illustrated in FIGURE 2 could be utilized as the only top pilot burner means for the apparatus and the same could be utilized in combination with ash tubes so that the pilot burner means 21 can effectively ignite the two top burner means and 16 and the pilot burner means 22, through another flash tube arrangement, can be utilized to ignite the other two burner means 17 and 18 in a manner well known in the art. Thus, it is believed that only two piezoelectric crystals are necessary for effectively igniting all of the required number of pilot burner means for a cooking apparatus of the type similar to the apparatus 10 illustrated in FIGURE 1.

Also, while this igniter means of this invention has been described as igniting pilot burner means for the cooking apparatus, it is to be understood that such igniter means can be utilized to directly ignite the main burner -means of the cooking apparatus or the like without utilizing pilot burners therefor.

While the form of the invention now preferred has been disclosed as required by the statutes, other forms may be used, all coming within the scope of the claims which follow.

What is claimed is:

1. In a cooking apparatus having a movable door means and pilot burner means for the oven thereof, spark igniting means operatively interconnected to said door means to be automatically actuated by movement of said door means relative to said apparatus, said spark igniting 4means creating ignition spark means for the same said pilot Iburner means each time said spark igniting means is actuated by said door means, said door means actuating said spark igniting means on both the opening of said door means and the closing of said door means.

2. In a cooking apparatus as set forth in claim 1, said spark igniting means including a piezoelectric crystal.

3. In a cooking apparatus as set forth in claim 2, said pilot burner means comprises a pilot burner for a bake burner and another pilot burner for a broil burner.

4. In a cooking apparatus as set forth in claim 2, said movement of said door means altering the stresses in said crystal to create said ignition spark means.

5. In a cooking apparatus as set forth in claim 4, said stresses in said crystal being altered yby a squeezing action produced by said movement of said door means.

6. In a cooking apparatus as set forth in claim 1, said apparatus having other pilot burner means remote from said oven, said spark igniting means also creating ignition spark means for said other pilot burner means each time the same is actuated by said door means.

7. In a cooking apparatus as set forth in claim 6, said spark igniting means including a rst piezoelectric crystal for sparking said oven pilot burner means and a second piezoelectric crystal for sparking said other pilot burner means.

8. In a cooking apparatus as set forth in claim 7, said other pilot burner means comprises two separate pilot burners.

9. A method for maintaining ignition at pilot burner means for a cooking apparatus comprising the steps of operatively interconnecting a spark igniting means to the oven door means to be actuated by both the opening and closing movement of said door means relative to said apparatus whereby said spark igniting 4means is actuated to create ignition spark means at the same said pilot burner means each time said door means is moved in an opening direction or in a closing direction, and moving said door means in an opening and closing manner for inserting or removing food from said oven or for checking said oven to actuate said spark igniting means.

10. A method as set forth in claim 9 wherein said spark igniting means comprises a piezoelectric crystal.

11. A method as set forth in claim 10 wherein said pilot burner means comprises a Ibake pilot burner and a broil pilot burner.

12. A method as set forth in claim 10 wherein said step of moving said door means includes the step of causing the stresses in said crystal to be altered to produce said spark means.

13. A method as set forth in claim 12 wherein said last-named step includes the step of squeezing said crystal to alter said stresses thereof.

14. A method as set forth in claim `9 and including the step of creating ignition spark means at other pilot burner means carried by said apparatus remote from said oven thereof by said spark igniting means each time said door means is moved.

15. A method as set forth in claim 14 wherein said spark igniting means comprises a first piezoelectric crystal for sparking said oven pilot burner means and a second piezoelectric crystal for sparking said other pilot burner means.

16. A method as set forth in claim 15 wherein said other pilot burner means comprises two separate pilot burners.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 6/1964 Weber 431-255 8/1967 Lamar.

FOREIGN PATENTS 340,467 10/ 1959 Switzerland.

U.S. C1. X.R. 431-255 

